Immediately after talking about Hitler, Sean Spicer made a joke about eggs

He noted that Trump had bombed a Syrian air base in a forceful response to chemical weapons use by Assad's government and said Trump's hosting of Chinese President Xi Jinping last week had produced "tremendous progress". "We all make mistakes and I hope I showed that I understand that I did that and I saw people's forgiveness because I screwed up". Eighty-seven people, including children, were killed in last week's chemical weapons attack in Syria. "I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers". There was not. He brought them into the Holocaust centre I understand that.

Appearing on Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room" on CNN Tuesday, Spicer offered up an apology for the comment, following an afternoon of backlash.

A day later he defended his attacks against the media, telling reporters: "I think sometimes you can disagree with facts".

When asked whom he was directing his apology to, Spicer said, "anyone offended by the comments".

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer speaks during "The President and the Press: The First Amendment in the First 100 Days" forum at the Newseum in Washington, DC, April 12, 2017.

A few hours later, a contrite Mr Spicer appeared on United States television expressing regret for the comments.

"I clearly meant to say Concentration Clubs, ok?"

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi claimed Mr Spicer was "downplaying the horror of the Holocaust", while senator Ben Cardin called for "someone (to) get the press secretary a refresher history course on Hitler". Earlier in the year, the White House generated criticism by issuing a statement on global Holocaust Remembrance Day that did not mention Jews.

A White House spokesman said later that "nothing has changed in our posture" and the president retains the option to act if it's in the national interest.